Review: msi r7870 hawk

MSI presents its personalized card designed by Massman for the Overclock specialists, it is nothing more and nothing less than the MSI R7870 Hawk.

Remember to put on your belts, the flight is going to start !!

Product ceded by:

R7870 HAWKS FEATURES
Graphics engine	ATI Radeon HD 7870
Standard Bus	PCI Express x16 3.0
Memory Type	GDDR5
Memory Size (MB)	2048
Memory interface	256 bits
Core Clock Speed ​​(MHz)	1100
Memory Clock Speed ​​(MHz)	4800
Departures	1 x DVI 1 x HDMI 2 x MinisplayPort
Maximum Resolution	2560 × 1600
Card Dimensions (mm)	277 x 120 x 40.5mm
Refrigeration system	Twin Frozr

Unlocked Digital Power

- BIOS Unlocked: Unlock all protections for extreme overclocking

- PWM Digital Controller: More stable and accurate voltage through digital signal

- Improved power design: Twice the power for maximum potential for the OC

GPU Reactor

- An added device on the back of the R7870 Hawk (Behind the GPU) for better overclocking stability

- Offers 5x more power to eliminate ripple current

Xtreme Thermal

- Dust Removal technology in the Twin Frozr IV removes dust to achieve the best thermal condition

- Two integrated Heatsinks in one piece to offer better dissipation and offer a stronger structure.

Military Class III components

- Meets the MIL-STD-810G standard to offer you the best stability and quality.

- With CopperMOS, Hi-c CAP, SSC Dorados, and Dark Solid CAP

Hunting on the cover of the box makes us think it is a fast card. With the voltage unlocked it becomes a very interesting graph for the most overclockers.

The back comes all the features in different languages.

We start with the bundle:

• 7870 Hawk Graphics Card. Instruction manual and software CD. Two molex thieves to PCI. Cable to measure voltage. Mini displayport cable to HDMI.

The card has a very electric design. Like the 7850 we highlight the blue and black colors.

It is worth noting the incorporation of a backplate, which always gives an extra touch of aesthetics and 1 or 2 degrees less.

The back we find the GPU Reactor that allows us to reduce between 20 and 25% the electrical noise that the graphic could emit, it also gives a blue touch with its very nice LEDs. As seen in the following images we can extract it if we see it necessary.

General view of the graphics card.

It has the HAWK model engraved on the PCB.

The Twin Frozr heatsink has a nickel plated copper base, 5 heatpipes and a top quality aluminum grill.

As it is a Twin Frozr system, its dissipation is divided into three parts. Heatsink for chip, secondary heatsink for memory and power supply phases and a third one that is the backplate that gives aesthetics and extra cooling.

The graphic has a brown PCB. At first glance it looks very good, and it is seen that its construction is solid and with quality components.

The graphics incorporates DUAL BIOS and 2GB Hynix H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C GDDR5 at 250 MHz at 1.5v.

MSI capacitors are the best on the market. And the incorporation of the Golden chips of SSC (Solid State Capacitor) give a plus of overclock.

The graphic is designed for overclockers and incorporates voltage read input / output. Ready for LN2?

The graphic is powered by two 6-pin PCI-E connections.

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel 2700k
Base plate:	Asus Maximuis IV Extreme
Memory:	Kingston Hyperx PNP 2x4GB
Heatsink	Corsair H60
HDD	Kingston Hyperx 120gb
Graphic card	MSI R7870 HAWK
Power supply	Thermaltake TouchPower 1350W

To evaluate the performance of the graphics card we have used the following applications:

• 3DMark11.3DMark Vantage.The Planet 2.Resident Evil 5.Heaven benchmark 2.1

All our tests have been carried out with a resolution of 1920px x 1080px.

What are we looking for in the tests?

First the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS, the more fluid the game will be. To differentiate the quality a little, I leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS:

FRAMES BY SECONDS
Frames for Seconds. (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 - 40 FPS	Playable
40 - 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Fairly Good or Excellent

Let's not fool ourselves; there are games that can have an average of 100 FPS. It may be because the game is quite old, does not require excessive Graphics resources or that the graphics is the most powerful on the market, or we have GPU systems for thousands of euros. But the reality is different, and games like Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 are very demanding and do not usually give high scores.

WE RECOMMEND MSI updates its 300 series motherboards for the new Intel 'R0' CPUs

ASUS GTX660 TI DIRECTCU II TESTS
3Dmark Vantage	P25218
3DMark11 Performance	P6941
Heaven DX11 Benchmark	78.8 fpS
Lost Planet 11 (DX11)	63.9 fpS
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)	180.6 fps
Metro 2033	49 fps

The MSI R7870 Hawk comes with a pretty high overclock (it far exceeds the Ghz). As we can see in the previous image, we have practiced a slight overclock that has slightly improved our performance in games and synthetic tests. For example we have gone from 78.8 FPS to 86.4FPS in Heaven DX11 Benchmark. That is, these ATI graphics cards go up that are pleasing. We have kept the fan in automatic and we have obtained excellent temperatures, let's see it in more detail in the following table:

And of course, I consume the card:

MSI has two lines in its graphics: overclock and gaming, that is, "Lightning" and "Hawk". Soon we hope to have to analyze the HD 7970 Lightning that will demonstrate what an extreme overclock can do. The R7870 Hawk is a gaming model but geared for strong overclocking. Designed by Massman we can only expect a card with its characteristics: 1100mhz as standard, Twin Frorz heatsink and military components.

The refrigeration I really liked because in idle it reaches up to 33ºC and at maximum power up to 70ºC. On its loudness it is almost inaudible in idle and at full power the fan is quite quiet, taking into account other reference cards on the market.

At the launch of the 7870 it would not compensate the acquisition of this card, but its price reduction (ranges from € 240) is an insurmountable alternative. Having a performance quite close to a 7950 and a GTX580. In addition to having the plus of 2GB of ram, which always comes in handy for resolutions greater than 1200px.

In short, a graphics card that can with all the games on the market, with excellent cooling and performance. If you are looking in the range of € 240-250 this is one of the best options on the market. Good job from the MSI team!

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ AESTHETICS.	- NONE.
+ PERFORMANCE.
+ REFRIGERATION.
+ UNLOCKED VOLTAGE.
+ HIGH SERIES OVERCLOCK AND VOLTAGE READERS.
+ PRICE.

The Professional Review team awards him the gold medal: